


Finding the Changes

by helsinkibaby



Series: In a Different Light [7]
Category: Criminal Minds (US TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Het, Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-12
Updated: 2018-02-12
Packaged: 2019-03-17 11:47:49
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13658364
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/helsinkibaby/pseuds/helsinkibaby
Summary: On Rossi's first day back in the BAU, he notices some changes.





	Finding the Changes

The moment that David Rossi walks into the BAU offices, he knows that things have changed in his ten year absence. There’s daylight for a start, light streaming through actual windows, having finally moved out of that miserable bunker they’d started off in. There are more people too, more agents and definitely more support staff.

Many things have changed, but Aaron Hotchner is still here. He’s the boss now, not chained to some desk flanked by two other junior agents, like he was all those years ago, but Rossi has kept in touch with him. He knows that while the title might have changed, the man is still the same.

Aaron Hotchner always stays the same. 

He thinks that right up until he’s standing in Hotch’s office and a blonde agent walks in, tells Hotch that she’s ready to give the briefing. Rossi gives her a second look, because she's beautiful, the kind of beautiful that would have had doing more than looking back in the day. She’s new since Rossi’s time – hell, she looks like she was barely old enough to graduate high school the last time Rossi stood in BAU offices – but the effect she has on Hotch is both instant and, for Rossi anyway, surprising. 

He smiles at her, and there’s a warmth about his voice, about the way he introduces them, that puts Rossi in mind of the first time that Hotch ever introduced him to Haley. For her part, the blonde is looking at Hotch in much the same way, and when she tells Rossi what her exact title is, Rossi is looking at Hotch out of the corner of his eye, and damn if the other man doesn’t look proud.

This is a change Rossi didn’t expect. He knows Hotch and Haley have split up; Hotch told him as much soon after it happened, over dinner three years ago. Still, Hotch had never struck him as the kind who’d dip his pen in company ink, not after all the disapproving looks he gave Rossi back in the day. But when JJ leaves the room and Hotch’s eyes follow her all the way down the stairs and through the bullpen, Rossi knows for sure.

Just to check, he glances at Hotch, makes sure the other man sees him looking at JJ too. “Well, we didn’t have that ten years ago,” he says.

The effect on Hotch is instant, eyes narrow, face serious, arms crossed. “What do you mean?” It’s undoubtedly an accusation and Rossi smiles inwardly, thinking that Hotch would be mortified if he knew how easy it was to read him.

“Communications co-ordinator and liaison,” he replies, as if he’s talking to a child, as if Hotch is misunderstanding him. Hotch’s face clears then and he nods, leading Rossi towards the bullpen to meet the rest of the team. Rossi follows him, more intrigued now than he has been all day about what lies in store in this new BAU of Hotch’s, what other changes await him.

He can’t wait to find out.


End file.
